Sleeping Beauty in Stone
by DancingStar01
Summary: Connor brings a cursed princess to new life. While he feels bothered with that, Sue and Jack try some match making.    Pairing: Lots of C/L; S/J


Title: Sleeping Beauty in Stone  
>Author: DancingStar<br>Crossover: PSI Factor/ Sue Thomas F.  
>Pairing: Connor Lindsay, Jack/ Sue  
>Category: Romance, Fairy Tale, AU<br>Rating: 12  
>Summaries: Connor brings a cursed princess to new life. While Connor feels bothered with that, Sue and Jack try some match making.<br>Comment: Hope you had a great summer. My trip to Las Vegas was so great! It was hot, but okay and of course I took lots of photos and did lots of shopping. If you ever get the chance to go there, do it!  
>In this story, Jack is also working for the OSIR and another (historical) detail is wrong. SORRY for that!<p>

**Sleeping Beauty in Stone**

"How many swords we need to catalog yet?", Jack Hudson asked, when he took an old sword, decorated with symbols, out of a box. He and his colleague and best friend Connor Doyle worked for two years with the OSIR, but they never made it to get a job in the field office. Their boss told them they weren´t qualified enough and so they earned a living with cataloging the finds and evidences which the teams brought. The job was boring and being in the basement all day wasn´t Jacks dream because he wished to have a better job at the OSIR. Sometimes, he believed, the university was a waste of time. At the moment they were working on a mystical sword collection which contained be the sword of King Arthur. The collection should be cataloged till tomorrow morning and they were already an hour behind schedule.  
>All the other colleagues already left because their wives and children waited on them. They were working alone because Connor had no family he had to care for, but Jack was married to his early love Sue, who was very understandingly. His wife was deaf but he loved her in the same way he did when he first met her.<br>Connor coughed when he opened the last box. "Where do the swords come from?", he asked.  
>"Scotland, I guess," Jack replied, "One of the teams examined a castle which is haunted by the ghost of King Arthur." He would like to be there, but he tried not to show.<br>"What about this stone back there?", Connor pointed with his head to a long marble stone, which was hidden under a cloth. Under the cloth the silhouette of a human body was clearly marked.  
>"This is the tomb of a princess", his friend answered.<br>"And why is it here?", Connor asked worried. He believed a grave stone shouldn´t be in their office.  
>"No idea", said Jack and put one of the swords back into the box, "Let´s check it. Maybe we´ll find out." He went to the long block of marble and freed it from the white cloth. In the weak light they saw the perfectly crafted contours of a woman: She was sleeping and her hands were folded on her belly.<br>"Looks like a royal tomb from Westminster Abbey", Jack said. He and Sue spent their honeymoon in London where they were visiting all famous sights of the city.  
>"She must have been very pretty," Connor suspected, he bowed his head to read the inscription on a signboard: "Princess Lindsay of Scotland, 1598 - 1623" He never heard about the princess before and he was disappointed it wasn´t to find out why she had received such an expensive tomb.<br>"Let´s continue work," Jack suggested and returned first to the box with the swords. Together, they cataloged ten other swords (the sword of King Arthur wasn´t there) and when they were finished, they both grabbed for their car keys. "Wait a second!", Connor said, when Jack already reached the door and he entered the office again, "I forgot to turn off the light in corridor three."  
>"I´ll go and get my car", Jack said.<br>On the way to corridor three he would pass the tomb of the princess and he noticed that Jack hadn´t covered the marble block with the white blanket again. He picked up the linen cloth and caught his foot in it. Connor screamed as he fell and landed on the top of the stone princess. His jaw hurt for a moment when he realized he had landed on the marble block and he was also relieved he hadn´t knocked out a tooth. Connor got up, covered the tomb and then he went to corridor three, where he turned off the light.  
>When Connor returned, his heart skipped a beat when the cloth as was on the ground again. "Jack, that´s not funny!", he shouted, but no one responded. Then he heard footsteps outside the door and suddenly Jack appeared. "What exactly do you mean?"<br>"I've covered the tomb and you pulled down the cloth again. Did you want to play a trick on me?"  
>"I wasn´t my fault."<br>"Who did it otherwise? The dead princess?"  
>"Connor, the tomb is moving!", Jack came closer and he watched how the marble transformed in some places. The stone places that represented the hair of the princess, turned into hip-length blond hair and the marble on the face and hands turned to the soft skin of a pretty young woman. She breathed and finally opened her water blue eyes.<br>"What have you done?", Jack asked, looking at Connor. He was convinced Connor was responsible. Restlessly, the woman looked around and sat up. "Who are you?", she was clearly appalled that the two strange men saw her in her nightgown.  
>"I'm Jack, this is Connor. You are Princess Lindsay?"<br>She nodded and noticed the piece of paper which she held in her hand. Lindsay couldn´t remember to have kept a piece of paper in her hand before she went to bed and she unfolded it. The princess read the script and shook her head confused. "I don´t understand," she admitted. She handed them the old card and Jack unfolded it. But he wasn´t able to deal with the letters and words even less.  
>"This is Celtic font. That I can´t read this", he shook his head while he returned her the letter.<br>The young woman folded the note and also shook her head. "Where am I?", she asked.  
>"This will be a shock for you, but you are in Canada."<br>Her eyes widened a bit. How was it possible she went to bed in Scotland and woke up in Canada?  
>"Where is my father? And... How shall I come back home?", despair mingled in her voice. Connor wondered how she would react when she learned her father had died several hundred years ago.<br>"This is a problem, indeed," Jack told Connor and then he complained because he hadn´t said one single word so far. Next, Jack announced: "I think she should stay with you."  
>"What!", Connor was shocked. He was probably upset because Jack had noticed how he stared at the princess.<br>"You woke her so she stays with you," Jack repeated and put his hands on his sides. While he was talking to Connor, the princess watched the discussion confused.  
>"What, do you think, will Kayla say about that?", asked Connor back. Kayla was Connor's girlfriend and Jack thought she was an arrogant, nasty bitch. Kayla and Connor were in a long distance relationship for three years. Kayla's job in Chicago brought the consequence they barely met three times a year: on Christmas and on their birthdays. Sometimes they spent the vacation together, but they didn´t see very often. Jack believed his best friend deserved someone better and of course he hadn´t missed the detail how Connor t had looked at the princess. And he couldn´t let her out of sight.<br>"We don´t even ask Kayla!", Jack yelled, "But the princess can´t stay here and I can´t take her to my place. Sue won´t never believe she´s a cursed Scottish princess." Jack and Sue were married for years. As if it was magic, Jack´s mobile phone rang and the Princess was surprised when he pulled a small black box from his jacket pocket, held it to his ear and spoke into it. After one minute he put the box back into his pocket.  
>"That was my wife," Jack told, "We wanted to go out today... We talk more tomorrow. Take good care about the princess, you hear?" Now Jack really left and Connor and the princess were alone.<br>"How was he able to speak to his wife?", she wanted to know.  
>"She phoned and... Come on, let's go. I don´t want to stay here all night." He went to the door and noticed in the corner of his eye how she got up from the marble block on which she had lain. "I can´t go outside in my nightgown," she said. Connor didn´t understand her excitement: the white dress which she wore wasn´t see- through. Slightly annoyed, he shook his head and gave her his leather jacket. It was summer and actually it was warm, but today the weather wasn´t best.<br>He waited until she put on his jacket and then they left the basement office to go to the elevator. Fortunately, there were no surveillance cameras. So no one would see them leaving.  
>Princess Lindsay was surprised when they got into the elevator and the doors closed behind them, as if by magic. "This is an elevator", Connor explained to her when she looked around, "The elevator was invented in 1853."<br>"And in what year are we in?", she asked.  
>"1998", he replied and when he saw she had to hold on suddenly, he felt he shouldn´t have done this. With a shock she realized her father died a long time ago and she shouldn´t really be here. Tears welled in her eyes and she sobbed. Finally her legs gave up and she fell to the ground.<br>"Please calm down," Connor told her. The elevator reached the ground floor and opened the doors. Connor helped her up and left the headquarters of the OSIR with her as quickly as possible. Outside, not many people were on the road, so no one would be surprised about Lindsay's medieval clothes. Tears were still on her face when they walked silently on the sideway next to each other. She tried to organize the thoughts in her mind and she was searching for a solution to her situation.  
>"Where are you from?" Connor suddenly asked. Of course he knew where she came from, but it was a good beginning for a conversation.<br>"From Scotland."  
>"As far as I know, Lindsay is a man's name there."<br>"The astrologer foretold to my mother she would give birth to a son. She was very disappointed when she held a princess in her arms...", she hated to remember the fact her mother sometimes told her, how much she wanted to have a son. But when Princess Lindsay was born, her mother was already to too old to have further children. Before she gave life to her only daughter, she had already given birth to some children dead and for a long time it seemed like Scotland would never have a successor.  
>Connor was wondering if she regretted never having been Queen of Scotland, because she had transformed in a sculpture of marble for an unknown reason.<br>He recognized his red car, which parked between all the other vehicles on the roadside. Connor unlocked it and opened the door for her. "Get in", he told her.  
>"What´s that?", She didn´t enter the car, just looking at him confused.<br>"This is a car. This can be compared to a coach."  
>"And where are the horses?"<br>"I´ll tell you another time but would you get in, please."  
>This time she obeyed, got into the car and watched attentively how Connor then started the engine and drove off. While he drove, Connor thought about the fact that Lindsay's world and his were probably no comparison to each other. Many things, actually everything, had changed in the last 500 years. Connor had to stop in front of a red light and Lindsay looked out the window. On the left there was is a small house. On the roof was a round, bright blackboard.<br>"Who is this Burger King? Which kingdom does he rule?"  
>"Why do you say that?", Connor asked and at that moment he discovered the glowing billboard, "He rules the fast-food kingdom," he answered, and Lindsay looked at him. She wondered which king lived in such a tiny castle like this. Moreover, everyone could look inside the castle through huge glass windows.<br>"Burger King is not a king, but a famous restaurant chain," Connor said and because the traffic light turned green, he had to drive on.  
>"What is a restaurant chain?"<br>While Connor explained he was relieved when they were finally home.

The apartment where Connor lived was located on the top floor of a very high building. Not only his salary from the OSIR owed him to live here but also his father, who owned a few shares in the stock market and helped his son to use it right.  
>Even in this building they took the elevator and Lindsay then looked at the apartment very closely. The furniture didn´t correspond to what she was used in Scotland.<br>"You want something for dinner?", Connor asked, when he went to the refrigerator and took a slice of pizza to warm it in the microwave.  
>Lindsay didn´t answer, she stared down at the city, enlightened by small, glittering lights.<br>"I asked you if you want some food?", Connor repeated the question and she was terrified. She turned around to him. "No, I'm not hungry," she said.  
>"Hard to believe. After 475 years of sleep you must be hungry."<br>"For me, these 475 years felt like one night", with these words she turned around and continued looking at the city.  
>"Would you give my jacket back to me?", Connor asked now and watched how Lindsay took off his jacket and handed it to him. She discovered a strange object which was standing on the glass coffee table. "What's that?"<br>"A computer," Connor answered and in that moment he remembered she had no idea what a computer was, "With a computer you can write letters, you can surf the Internet and..." She probably didn´t know what the Internet was and what surfing meant. Finally, he sighed with relief. "I´ll sleep on the couch tonight," Connor announced, "You can sleep in my bedroom." He pointed to a door located at the end of the living room. Lindsay really wanted to disagree, but she didn´t. Once more she thought about her father who died long ago and she didn´t know how to return to Edinburgh Castle. This world with all the strange objects and vehicles without horses overwhelmed her. She also felt that Connor took only care about her reluctantly. She felt his rejection in her presence.  
>"Would you please go into the bedroom?", Connor asked when he was standing with a blanket and a pillow under his arm in front of the couch, "I want to go sleep because I have to work tomorrow."<br>Lindsay nodded and got up from the couch where she had sat down. "I'm sorry I'm here," she told, passing him, "But I haven´t chosen this."  
>Connor knew what she wanted to say and agreed inwardly: It wasn´t his choice, too.<p>

The next day was Friday and Jack felt free and reported Connor and himself sick today, after they had already finished their work yesterday, cataloging all the swords. In addition, a 500-year-old princess was more interesting than their boring job in the basement of the OSIR.  
>When Jack showed up at Connor´s apartment he held a thick, old book in his hand. First, Connor complained because Jack had stolen the old book from the archives of the OSIR but then he realized it would help them.<br>Jack was looking for a particular page and read it for Connor, when he was sure Lindsay was on the apartment´s balcony and looked at the city. Surely she had never seen such a large city, which was bathed in red light of dawn.  
>With the book in his arms Jack walked through the living room: "Here it is: Princess Lindsay of Scotland was born in 1598 in Edinburgh Castle, the only child of King William II and his wife Anna Maria. She spent her childhood at Brodie Castle in the north of the country. She returned to Edinburgh very late... Here is even a drawing, which looks very much like her... She´s a real Scottish princess. Oh, you lucky one."<br>"May we ask her if she´s able to handle a bagpipe?", he didn´t take Jacks words seriously and then he asked without interests, " Were there ever princesses in Scotland?"  
>"Until 1707, then Scotland was united with the English Kingdom ", Jack read in the heavy book in his hand. "There is the story how Princess Lindsay died." Jack didn´t like this word, for him she looked very much alive. Connor rolled his eyes.<br>"...The records are saying that a man in beggar gap appeared on Edinburgh Castle at the princess´ twenty-fifth birthday and the man asserted to be the elder brother of King William and therefore he was the rightful king of Scotland. When William refused to leave his kingdom to the stranger, the beggar took a Celtic curse on the person who was most important for William. At this time Queen Anna Maria had died one year ago and so only the princess was left. In the same night at midnight, the sleeping princess turned in a sculpture of stone and the beggar announced just a kiss of true love could save her. With the words "Who would ever love a stone?" the beggar left, people believed he was a druid, and he was never seen again on Edinburgh Castle. Princess Lindsay never awoke from her sleep." Now Jack understood why the tomb, in which the princess was trapped, had been taken to the OSIR.  
>"Why she awoke when I kissed her accidentally?"<br>"No idea," Jack replied, "Maybe you don´t love Kayla enough." In this moment Jack remembered the fact that Connor had said, Princess Lindsay was surely a beautiful woman once, when he had only seen her marble sculpture.  
>"What is a Druid?" Connor said, who wasn´t in the mood to talk to Jack about Kayla, "Druids usually appear in science fiction movies." He laughed a little.<br>"Druids were the intellectual elite of the Celtic society. Sometimes they had magical powers", Jack said, "Their habitat were Scotland, Ireland, some parts of England and even in Brittany, France, traces were found that people believed in Druids."  
>"And what does it tell us?" Connor asked.<br>"You redeemed Princess Lindsay from the curse, so you have to take care about her. Her fiancé can´t do this because he´s dead for centuries."  
>"She is engaged?", Connor asked now and watched how Jack still walked through his living room.<br>"It says here, she was espoused to the King of Ireland... If you believe in reincarnation you might think you were him", Jack laughed and showed him a drawing of a fine, dark-haired man, "The book says she never married him. She knew him only in passing and met him one time when her father introduced them to each other and decided the marriage." Jack closed the book with a loud noise, "She has no relatives, at least none that known. It would be very difficult to search for more relatives of King William II and his wife Anna Maria. Maybe her uncle King Jacob had kids, but that's not written in the book... You woke her, so you are now responsible for her."  
>Jack said there was no way out for Connor. He wondered how he should explain to Kayla. And his family... and he wondered how he should resign.<p>

Two days later, on Sunday, Jack and Connor wanted to golf and because Connor had decided he couldn´t leave Lindsay alone at his apartment, he had to take her with them. Last night she was afraid of the TV because the moving pictures and this irritated the princess. She was already overwhelmed with a shower and a hairdryer.  
>While Connor and Jack returned after their tour on the golf courses, Lindsay was sitting by a pond and fed a swan with bread crumbs.<br>"She fulfills the typical princess stereotype," Jack said, while he bought an ice cream and put on his sunglasses. Then he asked Connor if he wanted an ice cream, too, and when he said no, he asked Lindsay if she wanted ice cream. She shook her head and Connor complained he hadn´t expected something different.  
>"What´s your problem?", Jack asked annoyed.<br>"When I came home yesterday evening from jogging, dinner was waiting for me in my kitchen," Connor ordered now an ice cream, "Guess, who cooked."  
>Of course Jack knew that Lindsay had cooked the food: "Perhaps she would like to thank you in this way because you care about her."<br>"But not by cooking Haggis. And suddenly she has such unusual requests like a bath in rose water."  
>Connor didn´t tell his best friend, he asked the princess angrily if she might only runs after him because he looked familiar to her fiancé. Then she became very angry and told him that wasn´t true. She slammed the bedroom door with a loud noise and the dispute drove Connor crazy for hours. Very late that night he apologized to her.<br>"She just wanted to be kind... There wasn´t a woman in your life which cooked dinner for you for a long time. Kayla is only busy with her stupid record contracts in Chicago."  
>"But that's exactly what I like about Kayla: I don´t want a woman who´s just at home and cares for the house," Connor had eaten up his first ball of ice.<br>"You should have thought earlier before you awake a cursed Scottish princess." Jack left him alone.

Jack's wife Sue first met Lindsay, after Jack wasn´t able to shut his mouth at home and told about Connor's new acquaintance and she was a very pretty woman. Then Sue wanted to meet her, no matter if Connor agreed and so they met in downtown after Connor and Jack took off the rest of Monday.  
>Sue liked Lindsay immediately. Not even the long dress, in which Lindsay looked like a fairy, bothered her. "Hi, I'm Sue. Jack may already told about me", she smiled and Lindsay nodded. There was no day on which Jack wasn´t talking about his blond, lovely angel Sue.<br>"You´re Connor's new girlfriend?", Sue asked and Jack put an arm around his wife.  
>"My wife is very curious... but we're working on matchmaking", he said then and Sue knew what it meant. "Are you already busy with things that don´t belong to your business, Jack Hudson?"<br>"No," Jack lied and to his great satisfaction Sue asked Lindsay, if she also came to the annual dinner, which was organized by the OSIR next weekend.  
>Lindsay answered she hadn´t decided yet and Sue found it impossible Connor hadn´t asked her if she wanted to come along.<br>Now everything developed in such a way as Jack had imagined and suddenly Connor pulled him to the side on his arm. "Why is Sue doing this?", he wanted to know.  
>"Why don´t you invite Lindsay?"<br>"Everyone will think she´s my girlfriend."  
>"So what! Lindsay is a very pretty young woman and Kayla is hundreds of miles away", Jack repeated, "You met her on Christmas for the last time... Don´t you wish sometimes, there would be someone to whom you can come home in the evening and someone who is always there for you and loves you and..."<br>"I know what you mean," Connor said, "But I can´t go out with a 500-year-old Scottish princess."  
>"You can´t hide your feelings."<br>"What feelings?", Connor asked back and Jack could hear how Sue already suggested to help Lindsay to find a nice dress for her. She then added she bought her dress weeks ago. It was a blue dress and Jack told her she´d look like a mermaid.  
>"Who pays?", Jack wanted to know from his wife.<br>"Your credit card!", Sue answered cheeky and Jack decided to come along. "On this occasion we should buy some new clothes for Lindsay," he suggested, "She wears the same old-fashioned dress day by day."  
>Sue nodded in agreement. She loved makeover. Finally, Sue let go Jacks hand and reached Lindsay, who looked perplexed at some showcases, with her hearing dog Levi. "First we need a fancy dress for the dinner," Sue suggested and reached amicably for Lindsay's arm, "I know a shop that sells lovely evening dresses."<br>They entered the store together and Jack was following them at a certain distance. Inside the store Sue immediately began to seek for some clothes that would suit Lindsay very well. "It's like Pretty Woman!", Sue enthused, "Just that your clothes are not quite as expensive as the clothes of Julia Roberts."  
>"Who?", Lindsay asked and when Jack heard it, he immediately shook his head with a warning.<br>With a stack of clothing Sue sent Lindsay to the dressing room and told her to try on the first dress and then get out so she could look at it. While Lindsay was changing, she threw her white dress in which she already awake, over the door of the dressing room. A yellow piece of paper tumbled to the ground and Sue bent down to pick it up. "This piece of paper fell out of her bag," Sue tried to read the message, "What language is it?", She showed Jack the note he had already seen once.  
>"That's Celtic writing", he replied, "But unfortunately I don´t know what the words mean."<br>"This is incredibly sad," Sue sighed, "I would like to know so much," she smiled at her husband and asked, "Don´t you know an expert at the headquarters who can translate it?"  
>Jack grinned. "You're not a little curious, Sue." He took the piece of paper. Tomorrow he would take it to the lab for translation.<br>"Are you ready, Lindsay?", Sue asked and stood on her tiptoe curiously. She watched how the door to the dressing room opened and Lindsay came out. The tight, red dress reached to the ground. It suited her perfectly and when she moved, her long hair gently danced around her waist.  
>"Wow!", Sue said while Lindsay should turn around slowly in front of the mirror, "I think we found a dress for you. You don´t need not try the other dresses."<br>"I can´t wear this," Lindsay protested. The dress was strapless and if she should accompany Connor to the dinner, she asked herself what he thought about her. In the society she came from, only the naughty girls were wearing of such revealing clothing.  
>Even if Lindsay refused, Sue looked for three more beautiful summer dresses for her. Next, they bought shoes. In the evening they took Lindsay home and left her alone in front of the skyscraper, where Connor lived in. They asked her if she was able to handle the lift. With many bags in her hand she nodded and so she entered the elevator alone.<p>

Sue picked up Jack from work next day and when he sat down beside her in the car and kissed her, she asked about the note and if he translated it. Levi was sitting on the backseat.  
>"It's a weird message," he admitted and as he thought about it again, he remembered the face of the princess when she read the paper for the first time. Jack gave his wife a piece of paper on which the translation was: "Just a kiss of true love saves you from the curse of the stone. Watch out, beware: If your old heart will ever be broken, stand it for 12 hours and you come back to the stone forever."<br>Sue shook her head. "What does it mean: Then you come back to the stone forever?"  
>"She's a princess," Jack said at last and he didn´t care if Sue would believe, "She is Princess Lindsay of Scotland, who lived from 1598 until 1623. On her twenty-fifth birthday she was cursed by a druid and in the same night she turned in a sculpture of stone." Jack realized slowly, how Connor had managed to wake her. He probably kissed her accidentally in the office when he stumbled across the blanket. The old Druid had won anyway: he had never thought someone would manage to save the princess from the curse and if it really happened, she would turn to stone again if her heart was ever broken.<br>"Jack, it´s an unbelievable story," Sue said. But it would explain much of Lindsay's behavior. "Do you think Connor could wake her because he loves her?"  
>"I hope so," Jack admitted "It´s obviously he does. He just doesn´t know."<br>Sue nodded understandingly. She had noticed how Lindsay looked at Connor. And if she wasn´t able to win his heart in the red evening dress she never made it.  
>"Jack, I know what you´re planning, but I'm not sure I can accept that."<p>

But Sue decided to help her husband. The next day, Wednesday, Sue sent her new friend Lindsay in a lovely summer dress to the headquarters to pick up Connor after work and invite him for dinner. At home Jack told her that the male colleagues reacted quite envious because they probably were never picked up by such a beautiful woman. Later that evening Connor phoned and told about the dinner in an Italian restaurant and so Lindsay could try Pizza, Lasagna, and Spaghetti they shared their food.  
>On Thursday, Sue helped Lindsay cooking Connor's favorite food to avoid the idea to surprise him with Haggis once again and Sue left before Connor came home. After he then complained about his strained muscles, Lindsay massaged his shoulders and he admitted inwardly he liked it.<br>On Friday, Lindsay should ask him if he would show her the nice places in town and because Jack canceled the bowling night surprisingly, Connor had a little time. He showed her the beautiful places of the city and then they took a walk through the park. The sun wasn´t shining very much today and because Lindsay wore a pretty dress and she was a bit frozen, Connor put his jacket around her shoulders.  
>On Saturday, the day on which the OSIR hosted the annual dinner, Sue decided Lindsay should spend the whole day with her. First Sue and Lindsay spent the morning in a spa and Lindsay told her Connor hadn´t asked if she would accompany him to the dinner party and Sue noted how disappointed her new friend was. But that was exactly the plan: She and Jack would pick up Connor at home and then they would present him his date for tonight: Princess Lindsay of Scotland.<br>In the afternoon Jack and Connor met again and while the two were out, Sue phoned. She asked him if Connor had another date for tonight and Jack had to answer only Yes or No. Then Sue wanted to know if Jack had already seen Connor´s suit and if he knew the color of the tie, or if Connor wore a bow tie.  
>"Would you please hang up?", Jack finally asked annoyed because he had not seen Connors suit. He was a man and not interested in fashion.<br>"I'm waiting for the three famous words," Sue enthused and Jack at the other end of the line said: "Are you done?"  
>When she read the words on her Teletypewriter Sue was shocked by his strange sense of humor but she knew it wasn´t meant that way. She turned off the phone and took care about Lindsay's hair. Actually, she planned to prepare Lindsay's hair with a curling iron, but the hair of the Scottish princess was so unruly and Sue finally gave up.<br>Right in time at 5:30 p.m. Sue and Jack picked up Connor from home. "Where's Lindsay?", he asked a little worried. He had noticed he hadn´t seen her today and he wasn´t happy about this. He missed her sweet and shiny smile, which she gave him when he came home. "She´s coming to the party with us", Sue explained, "Sorry, you forgot to invite her so she´s my and Jack's guest tonight." Sue opened the rear car door for Connor so he could sit next to Lindsay. He greeted her with a simple "Hi". He was surprised, because in the long evening dress she looked even prettier than she usually was. How pretty she really was, he only noticed when they got out and some male colleagues threw envious glances in their direction. Connor looked at Lindsay from head to toe. The dress flattered her very much. He wished he would be one of the hair tips that touched her waist with every movement and he banished the thought immediately.  
>"Let´s sit down at our table, okay?", he asked and Sue told her shoes would kill her. Connor wondered why no one at the OSIR had noticed the mysterious disappearance of the tomb. Probably, the old marble stone form Scotland wasn´t interesting enough.<br>Lindsay was sitting next to Connor and Sue and when they sat down she stretched to watch some people dancing. "At home we danced very differently," Lindsay told and Sue had immediately an idea. When things continued she was better in match making than her husband. "Connor, why don´t you dance with Lindsay?", Sue suggested and Connor put down his champagne glass.  
>"Would you like to?", he wanted to know and Lindsay nodded. Sue watched satisfied how Connor entered the dance floor with Lindsay, grabbed her hands and they slowly began to dance with her. There was no doubt Lindsay was a real princess, who had lived 500 years ago. Sue wondered if Lindsay had ever thought about what should become of her. She would have to stay here and probably try to live a halfway normal life. Lindsay wanted to look for a job? If so, which job was she able to do? Princess Lindsay didn´t even know how a computer worked and Sue was very glad she could teach her, that in 1998 she hadn´t to cook on an open fire and she hadn´t to wash the laundry by hand. Would Lindsay ever learn how to drive a car?<br>"Thank you for keeping a seat," suddenly a voice said to them and a dark-haired woman in a black glitter dress sat down with them to the table. Sue only noticed her when Jack touched her arm.  
>"Kayla, you are here?", Sue was surprised and for the first time she felt just like Jack. Actually, Sue's relationship to Kayla was neutral, but now she wished she´d be still in Chicago.<br>"Connor told me about the dinner several months ago and asked me to come along", Kayla said, reaching for a pristine champagne glass, which was reserved for Lindsay, "I didn´t want to come, but one of my clients canceled a longer appointment spontaneous and I had a little time, so I'm here... Where is Connor?" Kayla started looking for him.

"This is a very nice evening," Lindsay said and smiled when she and Connor were dancing together. His hand on her back confused her a little bit but she didn´t show.  
>"For someone who´s only familiar with Scottish dances you dance very well tonight." Connor wasn´t able to take his eyes off her. She looked so breathtakingly beautiful that he would have liked to kiss her in the presence of all his colleagues.<br>"I had someone who brought his age very close to me", Lindsay said, "I´m very happy to be with you, Connor." She knew he couldn´t answer and so she leaned her head in silence against his cheek and they danced together more closely. The warmth of her body drove him crazy. Connor identified the scent of her perfume as rose water and in his mind's eye he saw how he kissed the perfect skin of her neck and...  
>"Connor, who is that?", a familiar voice asked and Connor stopped dancing with Lindsay. She stepped back a bit, without interrupting the body contact.<br>"Lindsay, this is Kayla," Connor told the blond woman in his arms.  
>"Won´t you introduce her to me?", Kayla asked annoyed, "I'm his girlfriend and I think I should dance with him now."<br>When Lindsay heard this, she looked at Connor in horror. Her blue eyes were suddenly so large and scared and she finally stepped back. "She´s your girlfriend?", she asked and although she didn´t come from this age, she knew what that meant, "Why haven´t you told me?" Lindsay didn´t gave him the time to answer: She reached for her long dress and lifted it up to run away as fast as possible. Tears welled in her eyes and Jack and Sue realized she was crying when Lindsay passed the table.  
>"The prophecy is fulfilled," Sue recalled, "He broke her heart. She will turn back into stone." They watched how Connor also passed them now and tried to follow Lindsay. Jack and Sue left their table and joined Connor, who took the second elevator of the building.<br>On the ground floor they noticed Lindsay had already left the building and the beautiful summer weather had changed into a terrible downpour. All at once it was cold outside and they saw how Lindsay ran in wet clothes and carelessly across the busy street. A taxi headed straight up to her and they heard her cry out in panic, the tires of the taxi were squealing as Connor pulled her aside at the last moment and they both ended up on the hard asphalt.  
>"My goodness, are you hurt?", Jack asked, who hastened with his wife under an umbrella across the street and helped them getting up. Connor shook his head and Sue saw that her friend´s red dress was torn.<br>"What's wrong with you? Why did you run away?", Connor asked, looking at her.  
>Lindsay wrapped her arms around her trembling body. "You didn´t tell me you have someone you...", she couldn´t go on, "How can you break my heart after all we been through?"<br>Tears ran down Lindsay's face and Sue put her arms comfortingly around her.  
>Jack watched at Connor in horror. "You haven´t told her about Kayla?", he asked. He had always thought Lindsay knew about Kayla.<br>Connor confirmed Lindsay had no idea.  
>"You have heard what she said: You broke her heart?", Jack asked and Connor nodded again.<br>"Then you have just tonight," Jack said, glancing at his watch, "Tomorrow morning at 6:28 a.m. she will turn back into stone. This was written on the paper which she held in her hands, do you remember?" He handed him the translation. The note with the original wording was with the OSIR because a colleague asked Jack where he got this note from and he had come up with a lie. The sentence "If your old heart will ever be broken, stand it for 12 hours and you come back to the stone forever" drove Connor crazy.  
>"She looks awfully tired," Sue realized. And Lindsay looked sad, but she would not say it.<br>"I´ll take her home," Connor suggested, handed her his jacket and stopped another taxi, in which they drove back home in the rain.

By the fall on the wet asphalt not only the beautiful dress was torn, she had also injured her knee, which she carefully dabbed dry with a fluffy towel after a hot shower. Her wet hair was hanging in strands in her face and she tried to hide the disappointment as she slipped into a bathrobe and then cared for her hair. Lindsay wondered why she had earned all this, having to sleep for 475 years and then wake up in a strange new world where her Savior and Prince Charming was already spoken for another woman. She thought she now knew what the words in the note meant.  
>Exhausted, she went out into the living room. "I´ll go to bed," she informed Connor, who had also changed clothes and sat on the couch.<br>"Sit down with me," he asked and she hesitated for a second. Finally, she sat down next to him.  
>"This is for you," he told her, "I've got the book from the library and I thought to myself, you might want to see it." He showed her a picture book about Brodie Castle, the place where she grew up. Then he showed her recent photos of Edinburgh Castle. "Did the castle change a lot?", he asked as she carefully leafed through the pages of the book. With tears in her eyes, she nodded.<br>"I also found some records about your father," Connor's voice was very quiet, "After you were asleep... He died three years later and your father´s younger brother Jacob was proclaimed as King of Scotland." Worried, he observed how she looked at the pictures in the book about Edinburgh Castle and he wondered if it was a good idea to show her that. "Is everything all right?", he asked, "You maybe want to go there?... Would you like to travel to Scotland?"  
>"No," she shook her head, "Connor why are you doing all this?"<br>"What do you mean?"  
>"Why did you save me from this monster out of metal and why do you show me these pictures?", she gulped down her tears and felt how he grabbed for her hand.<br>"I didn´t want to make you cry", he apologized, "I wanted to make you happy and I saved you from taxi, because... I couldn´t bear the thought of losing you." He noticed too late what he had just told her. He saw her gasping for air. Her blue eyes looked at him in surprise.  
>"What about Kayla?"<br>"Kayla is past. I don´t want Kayla, I want you." He wanted someone who had a good heart. Someone, who was waiting for him in the evening when he came home after work and warmed him with love.  
>His grip on her wrist was fixed and she noted a nervous tingling feeling in her chest when he drew her closer to him and kissed her gently. She felt overwhelmed by the indescribable feeling he caused in her. Connor pushed her gently into the cushions of the couch without interrupting their kiss. Then he patted one of her silky hair strands out her face and deepened the kiss. He studied her with all senses and felt how she reacted to him when she moaned. For a moment he drew back and saw the love she felt for him in her eyes. Connor once again put his lips on hers to become one with her in a passionate, deep kiss. His hands were on her knees and gently stroked her thighs, so she threw her pretty legs around him.<br>He gasped when he felt her fingers on the skin of his back and he didn´t believe he was able to resist her any longer. Connor squeezed her to him, felt her body close to his and there was no doubt how much he wanted her.  
>But then he broke the kiss, got up and reached for her hand. She wondered what he planed and she put her hand in his. He pulled her up from the couch to embrace her one again. She gasped, when he picked her up and carried her to his bedroom. After all, she had been planning to go to bed. "If you want we can wait and..."<br>"I don´t want to wait," she whispered, "I had to wait 475 years, until I found you. Since I know you I dream about you every night."  
>"Does that mean it was love at first sight?"<br>"Yes," she nodded and smiled, "Do you love me?"  
>"Yes."<br>While he was carrying her, she put her lips again on his. He decided he had to hurry, before he completely lost control about himself or before he lost her. And if it was the last thing he did in his life, he wanted her to know how it felt to be loved.

Connor woke up late next morning and he felt a heavy object resting on his shoulder. His first thought was he hadn´t been with her when she turned back into a sculpture of stone and he hated himself more than ever for it. He could not bear the thought of never kissing her again and when he remembered about their overwhelming night he wished the past would be different in some ways. But then someone threw its elegant arms around his neck and snuggled up to him. He opened his eyes and saw Lindsay. She hadn´t transformed back to stone.  
>"You're awake," he noted and lifted his head tiered.<br>"Of course I'm awake… You feel so warm", she giggled, nestled up to him more and felt his hand on her waist, which began to pet her slowly. He realized what that meant: The curse hadn´t returned, she was still a person of flesh and blood. Or was he able to heal her broken heart?  
>"I always wanted to do this", he confessed and decided to call Jack and Sue later and tell them the good news, "Spend the night with a real princess."<br>She laughed. "You certainly didn´t expect she´d be 500 years old."  
>"No, I also haven´t expected you´d steal my heart. You changed my life completely", Connor leaned to her, kissing her again very seductive and she gasped for air.<br>"Does that mean we stay...", he seduced her so much she couldn´t hardly speak.  
>"It would be very wonderful if you stay with me forever..."<p>

…And they lived happily ever after.

Fin


End file.
